Chapter 1 - Gina

From the moment I got on the plane in Denver, it felt like my chest was encased in ice. It feels like my heart can’t even beat. There is no breath in my lungs, and my veins run cold.

How can I be going back to Silver Meadows?

Easy answer. I have no choice.

My mind sweeps back across memories of the past few years. My world has been small, comfortable, and safe. When I left my hometown, I only had vague ideas of how I would survive in a big city. The most important thing was to get away from the backwater town of Silver Meadows and everyone in it.

There is nowhere to hide in a settlement of less than three thousand people.

In Denver, I was a nobody. All the shame of my past had been left behind, and I made ends meet by working in a coffee shop. For the first few months, that was enough. I needed normality, the comfort of a stable routine to silence the screaming of my wounded heart.

The only thing that could truly comfort me, though, was my music. I had excelled in piano in Silver Meadows, but given the quality of the competition there, I didn’t have much hope of making a career out of it.

One night, a casual friend encouraged me to play at a local bar. I hadn’t been able to afford my own keyboard, and I was drawn to the instrument as if by a magnetism that was almost mystical. The nerves that rose at the idea of playing in front of such a big crowd dissipated the second I touched the keys.

All my pain, my love, my shame came out in that first sonata. I was at one with the music as if it were a symphony of my very soul. The audience went so crazy when I finished, I almost jumped right off the bench. As they screamed for more, I turned back to the keys, and the music found me again, running away with my mind and soothing my heart.

From then on, I had a regular gig at the bar, as well as working part-time in the coffee shop. Local singers would join me when I played, and we’d belt out modern songs and old favorites to the cheering of the crowd.

It was an almost perfect existence, more than I could have ever hoped for, but it couldn’t heal my inner wounds. Sometimes, I still cried myself to sleep at night. There are scars that do not fade no matter how much time passes.

Clouds drift by outside the window, showing the bright blue sky winking at me through the patches of gray. Time has caught up with me, and now I have no choice but to face what I ran from all those years ago.

Even though I know the flight is only about an hour, it seems like an eternity has passed by the time we touch down at Silver Meadows Regional Airport. I’m so tense, it feels like my body has run a marathon. The rivers of sweat running down my sides only seem to confirm the fact.

I have to get to Grandmother’s house as soon as possible. My parents will be waiting for me, as well as other pack members. I just can’t face that room right now, especially since I don’t even want to admit that Grandma is gone.

“Bella Regina,” she’d whisper to me when I was a little girl. “Beautiful queen.”

The frozen feeling in my chest intensifies, and my eyes sting with tears. Instead of heading into the main building to claim my luggage, I turn away quickly and slip through a maintenance area. I move so fast that no one really notices me as I hurry through a small hole in the wire fence and bolt for the trees.

The second I’m covered by the wilderness, I take off my clothes and shift. As my paws hit the raw earth, a shock runs through me that seems to jolt my heart out of its icy stillness. I take a deep breath as I start to run, feeling the scent of the forest invigorate my senses.

For a while, I just run. With every step, I feel more alive. I barely shifted at all while I lived in Denver, and I know my wolf didn’t like that. I was trying to just be… normal, I guess. Leaving Silver Meadows was done so hastily that I didn’t really have time to think.

The tightness in my chest returns, and it’s got nothing to do with how hard I’ve been running. Of course, it would only be a matter of time before I had to face why I’d left. Did I really think I could stay ahead of it forever?

And sooner or later, I’ll see him. It’s inevitable.

Bailey .

I spent six long years lusting after him, maybe even longer. The only school in town is small, so we’ve all known each other from a young age. Families of the pack are connected even more closely than the rest of the town, too.

Just the whisper of his name in my mind and the memories come roaring back, filling my senses with days from years past. I’m sitting in the bleachers, too shy to scream his name, clapping while he scores a goal. I’m in class, watching the cute tilt of his head and the way he licks his lower lip when he concentrates. I’m in the cafeteria, and he’s standing up, talking loudly, drawing everyone’s attention to him like a king.

He is a king. Future alpha of the pack… and prom king.

A horrible emotion I can’t define shudders through me. It’s shame and embarrassment, garnished with pain, rejection, and regret. I can’t help it—I throw my head back and howl as loudly as I can.

The howl rips through my chest, tearing my throat and scorching my heart with fresh wounds.

Prom night. Don’t make me remember prom night!

I knew, all along, what Bailey thought of me. While I worshipped and adored him, he took every opportunity he could to taunt me and put me down. If being quiet and shy wasn’t enough, being plump seemed to be the worst sin of all.

I would never have even attempted to tell him how I felt. Never. I know that a golden prince like him could never be interested in a thick mule like me. The years of taunting were quite enough. I needed no other evidence that my love was unrequited.

My best friend Jill was responsible for the calamity that led to my sudden departure from town. It’s funny to still refer to her as my best friend, because I haven’t spoken to her since prom night.

She told him. She told Bailey that I was in love with him, that I always had been. At first, he didn’t believe her, but my dear and wonderful best friend decided to produce evidence of the fact. Like any lovesick girl, I had written poems, little love notes, and doodled hearts with his name on them in my textbooks. I wish I had burned them all.

I’ll never forget how he laughed at me, right there in front of the whole school. The horrible things he said still echo in my head. I can hear the laughter of his friends ringing in my nightmares. I fled the gym then, and I left Silver Meadows two days later.

A shift of the wind brings me back to the present moment. The chill from the nearby peaks settles on my coat as the scent of smoke wafts into my nose. My ears prick up, and I can hear voices. They are not far away.

Expecting to see some innocent campers, I trot through the underbrush, keeping my head down. Following the sound and the scent, I’m sure it’s at least five people, and they seem to be sitting around a fire near a cave entrance.

My wolf senses are out of practice, so I can’t be sure, but at least one of them seems familiar. There is a deep, intoxicating scent mixed in with the others, and I’m not sure what it could be.

As I come upon them, I can only see small patches of the scene. There are definitely five people there, all males. They have made a small fire on a rock face near a cave that probably connects to the old mines. Curious, I push forward through the trees to get a closer look.

That’s when I see him.

Bailey.

Bae .

Calm the fuck down!

I can’t. My heart is slamming against my breastbone, my blood is roaring in my ears. I can barely stay upright as I stare at him.

He looks a little taller, more muscular. His sandy, golden hair is even brighter, shimmering with pale highlights. The sharp features of his face and full lips are more defined. It’s only been five years, but it looks like he has fully grown up.

All five of them are positioned in a circle around the fire, wearing long, dark robes with hoods. Only Bailey has the hood pulled back, and it was his golden hair I recognized. As the men move back and forth, speaking in soft voices, the robes flutter around their bodies, moved by the cold mountain breeze.

My heart constricts in my chest, and shock pours over me with the force of a bucket of ice water when I notice what they are wearing under those cloaks.

Nothing.

Bae is right in front of me… and he’s almost naked.

I’m about to see Bailey Markson naked.

I’m so excited, I can’t breathe. My eyes start to water. I should probably look away, I know that, but I can’t. Instead, I stare, my wolf eyes picking out exact details even from this far away.

The slight sheen on his tanned, golden skin. Glints of light in his hair and the shape of his lips. I can’t keep my gaze from slipping downwards, admiring his chest, his arms, his flat, toned belly…

Suddenly, he turns and looks right at where I’m hiding. The force of his gaze, those beautiful, pale brown eyes that glow like amber, hits me so hard, I think I’m about to faint. My reaction must have been big enough that he could sense me, even in his human shape.

I’m so shocked that the shift comes upon me before I can stop it. Suddenly, I’m standing there, completely buck-naked. Freezing and trembling as I stare stupidly at the only man I’ve ever loved.

Feels like prom night all over again, except this time we’re naked.

Before anyone can move, the tallest man in the circle turns towards me with a great flourish.

“By the ancient rite of the mountain, great forces above, all the primal powers we live to obey, show us our alpha’s mate!”

He points right at me. All of them turn and look, and I grab the nearby tree branches in an attempt to cover myself. I’m struggling under so many successive shocks, I’m not sure I understand what just happened.

Did he just say I’m Bae’s mate??